Pure Chaos
by NanoCarp
Summary: Chris' one wish has always been to be able to help his friends fend off Dr. Robotnik. He's about to learn why you should be careful what you wish for.
1. Settling In

Welcome to Pure CHAOS. Some pre-story notices are in order so let's get them over with, okay?

I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related franchise material.

Hmm, guess there was only one. Silly me.

-1-1-1-1-1-

(Eggman's base, Location Unknown, P.o.V.: Dr. Ivo Robotnik A.K.A. Eggman)

"Doctor," came the ever annoying metallic voice of my robot minion, Boco, "I just realized something that could make our takeover of Station Square and the surrounding cities much easier." Oh, this I just HAD to hear. The last time one of these bolt-brains had a good idea was… Let me think here, never.

"Really now, Boco? I doubt your idea has any merit at all, but I'll humor you because I'm in a good mood." That was a lie. I just really wanted an excuse to take out my frustration from that blasted hedgehog on someone. And Boco works as well as any. Especially better than Bokkun.

"Well, Doctor," the short bot continued, "I was thinking, why do even bother with the chaos emeralds? I mean really all we ever do is -" CLANG! I wasn't going to stand for his stupidity. Ignore the chaos emeralds? Why would we want to ignore the most powerful artifacts ever!

"Sir?" chimed in a slightly higher but still robotic voice of Deco.

"What do you want Deco?" I grumbled.

"I think Boco may have a point sir. The emeralds seem to be primarily power sources. Why do we need so much energy in one robot?" Deco said.

I was about to smack Deco as well, when I realized something. My idiot minions actually had a decent idea for once. Really, thinking about it now, all those emerald powered machines I've used were just as much, if not more of, a hassle to use as normal machines. They take forever to charge, have a tendency to blow up, one got us here in this world, and they always end up with the emeralds scattered about the planet, just like when we started. If I can engineer better robots than GUN, and mass produce them, why can't we just invade the good old fashion way? "Alright, a land war it is then. We'll give this a try and see how it works. If it fails, you two will join the others on the scrap heap!" The bolt-brains may have had a good idea, but you won't catch me dead admitting it to them. Plus, now I can try to simply take over, I won't have to build Robotropolis from scratch.

I paced over to the window. "Tell the factory heads, I want robot output doubled. But make sure they are all still high quality. And Bokkun, no explosions this time, you know how fragile the head factory bots are."

"YES SIR!" The annoying robot left the room to go deliver my message to my various hidden robot production facilities.

Now, how to deal with Sonic...

-1-1-1-1-1-

(Unknown Location, P.o.V.: Unknown)

I. Am dying. There is no question about that. That last fight was too much for me to handle, even with all the power I had been given. Not to mention my judgement was severely swayed by that evil man. He almost had me destroy the entire planet! This may not be the planet I was originally charged to protect, but the Chao live here now, so I must protect them and the planet. But alas, I am dying. No amount of help will save me. There is only one thing for it. I must find a heir. Someone who I have encountered in my journeys past, and I know will help any who need it. Much unlike myself in recent past. Perhaps this is why I am dying. Who knows, not me that's for sure. No matter, I must find someone to take my place, for none of the chao are ready for this burden, but who?

-1-1-1-1-1-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

"SOOOOONNNIIIC!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I can't find him anywhere. He's not up on the roof like he normally is, or hanging out with Tails and Grandpa in the lab… Where could he be? Suddenly, a blue blur shot by me, to turn around and stop right in front of me.

"What's up Chris?" Sonic asked.

"Just wanted to let you know that dinner is almost done."

"Cool, I'll be exploring the new area. Be back in a few."

Figures. Sonic never could wait for the rest of us. It's our first day in the new house, and Sonic can't seem to stop exploring. You'd think by now he'd have already seen all this place has to offer, seeing as he can run faster than the speed of sound and all. By the way, I'm not talking like, just edging past the speed of sound, I've seen him break Mach 2 before! That's twice the speed of sound!

I guess I should probably introduce myself now huh? My name is Christopher Thorndyke. Yes, THAT Thorndyke. As you know, Dad's a very successful businessman and Mom's a famous actress. Me, I'm nothing special. I'm a bit smarter than most for my age, just getting ready to go into middle school and all, but I think that's because I hang around Tails so much. I guess that would be the most interesting thing about me, my friends. My best bud in the whole world you just met, his name is Sonic, and yeah, he really is a blue hedgehog. I guess "Anthro-hedgehog" would be a better way to put it, since he walks, well, runs, on two feet. I'm also now friends with all of his buddies.

Let's see here, there's Miles Prower, who everyone just calls Tails. Why? Because he has two tails instead of one. What? Foxes normally only have one tail. Yeah… I probably should have mentioned that he's a Fox. Again, two feet, but Tails isn't fast. I can run faster than him. But where Tails has everyone beat, is brainpower. This guy built an AIRPLANE from scratch at like, 10 years old! And he's still only a teenager! I think… At least he is in human years.

Next up we have Knuckles the Echidna. Yes, two feet, again. But this guy, he's not particularly fast, or smart, but he can smash through just about anything. Don't tell him I said that. The not smart part. That's part of the reason we just moved. He lost a game of chess to Tails in about 4 turns each… Needless to say, he didn't react well. I guess it's kind of ironic that he's red. You know, cause when he's mad he's seeing red? Get it? No? Man. I make horrible jokes.

After Knuckles we have Amy Rose. She's a Hedgehog like Sonic. But she's not fast like him either. She's pink, but you should never, EVER, get her mad. You ever seen those cartoons where the characters keep getting giant mallets from somewhere? Yeah, this girl knows how they do it. And she loves to throw them. Almost as much as she loves Sonic. Did I tell you that? No? Yeah, she has a HUGE crush on Sonic, but, unfortunately for Amy, Sonic doesn't particularly love her back. She'll get over it. Maybe.

Lastly we have Cream and Cheese. I don't even want to hear it about their names, I didn't pick them. Cream is a rabbit, yes, two feet again. Her fur is cream colored so I guess that's where the name came from. Cheese is a chao. Chao are… Hmm… I really don't know how to describe them except for they are one of the cutest species I have ever seen. They don't grow any larger than about a foot, but are completely adorable. Cream and Cheese are pretty much the innocent bystanders of the group. They don't get involved too often when danger or Egghead rear their heads.

I guess I should mention them too. Eggman's real name is Dr. Robotnick. I think his first name is Ivo, but I'm not sure. Anyways, he's rather fat, bald and has this ugly mustache. He's basically the 'bad guy' stereotype come to life. An evil genius who pretty much only works with robots. And has an obsession with either ruling or destroying the planet. Why? I have no idea, and I don't particularly want to know. I just wish there was something more I could do to help when he attacks. Oh well…

I went inside to finish helping Amy and Greta, the housemaid, cook. Ok, really I wasn't much help at this point, but give me a break, okay? We're having chili-dogs, they're simple to make and yummy too. Sonic loves them more than the rest of us. I just hope we all get a chance to eat before he eats them all himself! But yeah, since we just finished moving no one really was in the mood to be picky or too eager to work with food. Our new house is, well, almost in the middle of nowhere. I may be overstating that a little bit, but it's definitely a rural neighborhood. It's rather nice to be away from the city though, I can actually see the stars out here, and we actually found a Chao colony nearby while we were scouting locations to build the house. Don't worry, we had it built far enough away that we wouldn't disturb the colony any, but now Cheese can have some new friends to play with!

Sonic arrived just in time to eat with the rest of us. This is probably the strangest seeming dinner table I've ever seen, but I'm used to the wide variety of critters that share our home, so it's no big deal to me. Dinner was uneventful. Sonic obviously finished first, and left to go snooze on the roof. Tails eventually went down to the workshop, probably to go work on the X Tornado some more. Cream, Cheese, and Amy just kind of played around for a while, seeing as we haven't gotten the TV hooked up yet. I decided to head up to my room and maybe read a book or something before I went to bed. On my way up I went into the bathroom and filled up a large cup with water. I took a sip and almost spit it out.

"Guys, is something wrong with the water?" I called downstairs.

"No, master Chris." Replied Mr. Tanaka, the butler. "It is simply spring water, and less heavily filtered than we are used to in the city."

That was a relief. I shrugged and chugged down the rest of my cup, I was suddenly VERY thirsty. I filled up my cup again and left for my room. Up another flight of stairs I reached my new room. 'Might as well get used to it.' I thought. My new room, was huge. I've seen bigger, but it's still pretty big. Not to mention almost the entire ceiling is a skylight that automatically tints itself so almost no light gets through in the morning. Unless you set otherwise that is. It's like the sun is my alarm clock!

I crawled up into bed and got out the book I was reading. Next thing I know, I'm fast asleep.

-1-1-1-1-1-

END CHAPTER 1

Start Date: 7/26/2011

End Date: 7/28/2011

Notes:

Bokkun, for those of you who don't know, tends to deliver, umm… explosive, messages. Literally.

Yes. Tails' real name is, in fact, pronounced the same as "Miles Per-Hour". What the heck was Sega thinking?

Egghead is one of the group's many derogatory nicknames for Eggman. "Dr. Robuttnik" is another such example.

Lastly I want to remind everyone that you can check for updates on my progress with stories by going to my blog, nanocarpblog*blogspot*com (Replace * with .). There is also a link on my profile. This blog has the most up to date status of me as writer and as, god forbid, a person.


	2. A Normal Day?

Hello everyone. Time for chapter 2 huh? Well, I guess I'd better start writing. Especially cause this seems to be getting a better initial response than my other story did.

Well, I forgot to add my fine print to the last chapter, so here we go with the last disclaimer.

I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related franchise material. Assume such for the entire story. I'm sure you'll hear about me on the news if this changes.

Beta-reader: Aleron's Sword

-2-2-2-2-2-

(P.o.V.: Unknown)

My time, is almost up. I hate to force this upon him without his knowing, but I have no choice. I cannot even hold my own form anymore. Forgive me. He has come. I must now make my presence known.

-2-2-2-2-2-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

Where am I? I can't see anything. Or maybe there's nothing to see?

"Hello?" I called out nervously, not sure if I could expect an answer or not.

"Hello, Christopher." Came a voice. It was deep, and sounded tired, and vaguely familiar, even.

"Who are you? How do you know my name? Where are you? Where am I for that matter?"

"All will be revealed in time my friend. I come to you tonight to simply apologize."

"Apologize? For what?"

"For this gift I am forced to give you. You are the only one that I know for sure I can trust with this. Your heart is pure, and I know you will not abuse this power. I apologize for not asking if you accept the task that comes with the gift."

"This is all kind of vague, you know that? Can I get some specifics?"

"I'm sorry, that is all I have time for. I must rest now, and recover enough of my life force that I may guide you in your journey to come. Goodnight Chris." As the voice said this I could have sworn I saw a hazy outline of a chao of some sort, but before I could come to figure out what it was, I woke up. Yep. Turns out I was just dreaming. Weird dream though.

"Hmm. That's odd…" The cup of water I had gotten last night was on it's side. The strange thing is that nothing is even damp near it. Almost like someone drank the water then put it down on it's side. Then I noticed my clock.

"11:00! Oh crud. I was supposed to meet the satellite guy to help him know where to set up the TV!" I got dressed as fast as I could and ran downstairs. Only to find Cream and Cheese already watching the TV. "Umm. You guys, who hooked up the satellite?"

"Ahh, there you are, master Chris. The man came by already. We are all set up with each TV in the house." Mr. Tanaka calmly informed me.

"Ahh, okay." I said. Really I was just relieved that he'd gotten it right, Tails must have helped cause Mr. Tanaka isn't exactly the most technology inclined person around, if you know what I mean. I decided to go make sure he hadn't made too big of a mess when running the cables around the house. At least I was about to, when something caught me off guard…

"CHA!" It was Cheese. For some reason he came and started hovering around me for a few minutes. I kind of got the feeling that he wanted me to stay and hang out with him and Cream for a little bit. So now I find myself watching the end of some kiddy TV show with them.

"Cream, can we go say hi to the Chao colony? PLEASE?"

Wait what? "Umm… Cream?" I hesitantly asked. 

"Yes Chris?"

"Since when does Cheese speak English?"

"Silly Chris, Cheese doesn't speak English!" She said and began giggling.

"I could have sworn…" I mumbled.

"Silly Chris! Silly Chris!" I heard the squeaky voice say again.

"THERE! See! Cheese spoke English!"

"Chris, are you alright?" Cream answered.

"I'm not making this up Cream! I really heard Cheese speaking english."

"Chris, I think you may be going crazy. Did you fall out of bed or something last night?" Amy asked, walking into the room.

"I swear guys, I'm not making this up! I heard Cheese say 'Silly Chris!'! And he also asked to go say hi to the Chao colony!" Looking back, I really shouldn't have said that. I really shouldn't have. Why? Because Amy decided I was now lying through my teeth, and whacked me with one of her mallets.

"CHRISTOPHER THORNDYKE! YOU STOP MAKING THINGS UP RIGHT NOW!" She bellowed.

"OW! Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Guess I'm just hearing things." Yeah, I will be hearing my ears ringing for the next half hour because of that blow.

"Chris smell funny! Chris smell like Chaos!" Cheese chimed. That didn't make sense at all. I smelled like Chaos? Maybe it was all in my head after all.

"Well, regardless of if he's hearing things, I think visiting the Chao colony is a great idea." Cream said happily. So the four of us left for the colony a few miles south of the new house. Sonic showed up about halfway there and decided to join us.

"Couldn't have waited for me to get up now could ya Chris?" Sonic teased. "Why'd you go and abandon your buddy like that?"

"Because I knew he'd be able to catch up to us before we got there regardless." I answered, sticking my tongue out at him. A few minutes later we arrived at the colony.

-2-2-2-2-2-

(P.o.V.: Sonic)

Man this is weird. As soon as we got to the Chao colony, all the chao started gathering around Chris. He was really freaked out. This more than makes up for the lack of anything happening on the BORING walk here. I decided to start just kind of loafing around the water, when suddenly the Chao picked up poor Chris and threw him into the pond! I couldn't stop laughing.

"That's not cool guys!" Chris said, climbing back out of the pond.

"It was funny though!" I said. Cream and Amy nodded.

"Thanks for the help guys." Chris said rolling his eyes. Suddenly Cheese pushed Chris back into the water.

"Chao, Chao chao chao cha chao!" Cheese said.

"Cheese I don't want to stay in the water!" Chris said back. Still hearing things huh? I guess it's better to roll with it than fight it.

I reached out my hand to help Chris back out of the water. Cheese seemed to want to push him back in again, but I told him not to.

"Guys, I'm going to head home now and change into some dry clothes…" Chris said and left the Chao's garden.

-2-2-2-2-2-

(P.o.V.: Dr. Ivo Robotnik)

"Doctor!" Bokkun yelled, coming back into my command hub. "Doctor, I delivered the message to all the factories. They estimate that they can produce up to 3 battalions of robots a day. Factory number 4 is having a shortage of the special alloy for the lances their 'bots use, and the ammo plant needs another shipment of gunpowder a week to keep up with the new demand."

"Hmm." This could be a bit of a problem indeed. "Tell them to do the best they can with what they have and we'll hit the government's supplies of resources first thing when we move out."

"Okey Doke!" the little robot cheered and left the room. Now I can get back to planning. I want to put an extra battalion in Station Square, and we should hit the G.U.N. training grounds and weapon plants…

-2-2-2-2-2-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

Ugh… Why did Cheese and the other Chao have to push me into the water? I mean, I guess it was kinda funny, at least for them. But now I'm soaking wet and have to walk back home to get dry clothes and whatnot. What else am I supposed to do? I don't want to catch a cold or something from laying around in wet clothes all day! So I began the journey back home, Sonic and the others decided to hang out at the garden for a little while longer.

"Master Chris! What happened?" Tanaka asked, worry on his face, once I got to the door.

"Nothing Mr. Tanaka. Cheese and I were playing with the other chao and I fell into their pool. I came home so I could change into some dry clothes." I told him. Mr. Tanak only nodded and let me past so I could get up to my room and change.

"UGH! Why can't I get all the water off!" I yelled in frustration. I had been in the bathroom for about 15 minutes now, drying myself off, and I still wasn't dry. I reached over and grabbed a fresh towel from the rack, and finally finished getting dry with that one. I went back into my room and got a fresh set of clothes. I decided to go and see what Tails was up to, so I headed back downstairs and found Tails' new lab.

"Hey Tails! What's up?" I called out to the two-tailed fox.

"Not much Chris." Tails said, "I'm actually still unpacking. I had a lot more stuff at the old house than I realized."

"Need any help?" I asked. Tails always has some neat stuff laying around, so I get to look at all his gadgets and stuff when I help him. As if I really need a reason to be nice anyways. I grabbed the nearest box from the pile of stuff to unpack and took a peek inside.

"Um Tails," I asked, "Aren't paper airplanes a bit below your normal technology level?" The box was filled with what appeared to be about a hundred or so tiny paper airplanes.

"You don't remember those?" Tails asked me, "I thought you had a better memory than that! They're from one of the first times we met." Tails walked over to the pile and rummaged around for a few moments. It was kinda funny to watch his tails sticking out of the pile of boxes, and nothing else. They looked kinda like a snorkel would. Tails came back out holding a remote control of some sort. "Ok Chris, I want you to throw a couple of them."

"Whatever you say Tails." I started throwing the paper airplanes from the box. Next thing I know they are flying circles around me and doing loops. I looked at Tails and realized that he was controlling them with the remote!

"Just be careful with them Chris. They're kind of sharp." Tails said. Not two seconds later did I find myself with a paper cut.

"Ouch… I'm gonna go get a bandage for this real quick Tails." I said and ran off to the nearest bathroom, and first-aid kit. When I got back, Tails had flown the airplanes back into the box and was putting them away on a shelf. I went back over to the pile and pulled out a pair of shoes.

"Shoes, really Tails?" I said, a bit disappointed at the stuff I was finding.

"Chris, you should really learn not to judge a book by it's cover." Tails told me. "Those shoes are a prototype to let Sonic fly. Right now though they can only hover."

Sure enough there were some holes on the bottom of the shoes. "Mind if I try them?"

"Umm... hold on a sec. They're still not finished yet, and I haven't tested them. I don't mind but we have to find the safety gear. I'd hate to see you get hurt in a crash with this stuff."

I nodded, it makes sense. I mean, Tails is always inventing new stuff, and someone has to test it. Generally he tests it himself so Tails should have some safety equipment around. Tails took the shoes from me and put them down next to his computer.

"First let's set up the harness. Since this is for flying, we need to keep you restrained." He pulled up a diagram on a computer. It looked like the harnesses that you see for the trampolines at theme parks. Except here there's no trampoline, and instead a padded surface. "There's 'two' surfaces here, there's a hard surface that we'll use for take-off, and then I'll pull it off and uncover the padding once you're in the air." Tails explained. We spent the next hour or so setting up the harness and cleaning up some of the other stuff.

"Ok, everything looks to be set up," I said, excited to try one of Tails' newest inventions. "I'll go get the shoes on!"

"Hold up Chris. It's not that simple!" Tails said. "You can't just slap these shoes on and expect them to work properly! How do you think you control the thrusters and launch springs?"

"Umm… I have no idea…"

"Sometimes, Chris, you think about as much as Sonic does before jumping into things." Tails sighed, took the shoes from me and put them down next to a big computer. "Now let's see here…" Tails mumbled. "First connect the computer chips to the computer via wireless…" Tails reached into each of the shoes and pushed a button buried down in the sole, so it can't be pushed accidentally. "Now we create a configuration for Chris…"

"Um, Tails?" I hesitantly asked, "Can you explain what you're doing a little bit to me? I can't make heads or tails out of the stuff on the display here, no pun intended. It's just a bunch of numbers to me."

"Just a sec Chris. I'm making a new setup file for the control system. They use a small neural interface and the motors and such act kind of like a muscle, and respond to brain impulses. This means, however, that for each person, the program has to be altered slightly. When I wrote the program I anticipated this and put that part of the code separate from the rest so I could change it quickly. Ok, now I need you to put them on, but don't go anywhere."

"Um, sure. Why?" 

"I have to take some measurements from the neural sensors to configure the program correctly."

I put one of the shoes on and was getting ready to put the second one on and - "OW! It just stabbed me!" I yelled out. I looked up at Tails and noticed a bunch of the graphs had started moving.

"Sorry, forgot to mention that." Tails said. His hand was behind his head and he was obviously embarrassed. "That was the neural interface linking up. It has to connect directly to you body to work, so there are little prongs along the bottom of the shoe that come up when you put them on."

I finished putting on the other shoe and braced myself for pain again. Thankfully, it didn't hurt that much now that I knew it was coming. Tails had me move my legs and feet around and took some measurements. I couldn't help but feel like a bit of an idiot waving my feet around.

"Okay! We're all set. Now comes the hard part." Tails said.

"Hard part?"

"Yeah, learning how to trigger the device. Now come over here and I'll hook you up to the harness." I got all suited up in a helmet, pads, and hooked up to the harness. "Ok," Tails continued, "For now I'll set the launch springs to go off when you jump. You should 'feel' them moving when they go off, and hopefully, you'll be able to control them separately at some point. There aren't really any muscles I can synch with the thrusters, so for now we'll just work with the springs."

"Seems reasonable…" I said, "Ok then, here we go!" I said and jumped. Sure enough I could feel the springs triggering separately from just my muscles. And I don't mean the pressure they applied to my feet. It's hard to explain, kinda like finding the muscles to wiggle your ears, or burp on cue. Of course I didn't have much time to think about this, because next thing I know, my head smashed into the ceiling. I fell down and landed on my butt.

"Ow…" I said, "Good thing I wore the helmet." I smiled and got back up. "Maybe if I don't jump as high, they won't put as much force behind it?"

"That should be the case Chris. You okay for another try? It looked like you hit your head pretty hard." Tails said.

"Naw, the helmet took most of it." I said and jumped again, this time not putting as much power behind it, and what do you know, I didn't hit the ceiling. "Cool!" I said, landing on my feet this time. I almost fell down again though, simply trying to keep my balance from the landing. Tails walked over to the computer and I jumped again, just cause it was fun.

"WOAH!" I screamed. Tails had turned on the thrusters in the middle of my jump. The only reason I didn't fall over was the harness keeping me upright. Again, it felt really strange. I cold feel the thrusters response to the commands. "Hey, floating here is really kinda cool Tails."

"AMAZING! You got the thruster control down already!" Tails called out.

"What do you mean Tails? You turned them on."

"Yeah, I turned them on remotely, but I cut off the command to keep them on about five seconds ago. You're up in the air on your own!" Tails said.

Of course this shocked me and I promptly panicked, and lost touch with the thrusters, and plummeted from the air, landing again on my butt.

-2-2-2-2-2-

(P.o.V.: Miles "Tails" Prower)

Incredible! I can't believe that Chris already figured out how to control the thrusters. Albeit was just all the thrusters firing at once. Each thruster should be controlled individually to allow for the most precise flight. Each of the thrusters is at a slightly different angle to allow the user to drift forward, backwards, and even sideways without changing the center of balance. Apparently Chris had been practicing while I was lost in thought though, because…

"Hey Tails! Check it out!" he called. I looked over and he jumped up into the air, floated there for a few moments, then lowered himself almost back to the ground before rising back into the air and then landing gently. Then I realized something.

"Hey, you didn't jump that time! You found the springs too, huh?"

"Yep!" He said. "Do you think you can turn off the command to set off the springs when I jump now?" He asked.

"Sure thing Chris, and I'll also loosen the harness some so you can see if you can keep your balance in the air." I said and put the appropriate commands into the computer.

BOING! Chris was already at it again. "WOAH!" I turned around to see him face first in the padding on the floor.

"Chris, are you ok?" I asked, running over to help him up.

"Yeah… I'll be fine. It just hurts is all. I don't think anything's broken."

"I think we should call it quits for today."

"Aw… Man, I wanted to keep going." Chris whined.

"Chris, I don't want you to hurt yourself any more. I'd rather you be safe than get these tested."

"Alright, alright. I'll go take them off."

I thought for a moment. "Actually Chris, you can keep them on."

"Really?"

"Yep." I could see that he was really excited about them and thought that he could keep the prototype for now. "Just let me disable the thrusters and springs and you can leave them on for awhile. It may help some if you leave the neural sensors in for awhile." I had no idea if this was true or not but figured it might help, but more importantly, it sounded like I was trying to further the experiment. I smiled and Chris smiled right back. He looked like a kid in a candy store right now. Or at least a kid that just left a candy store.

"CHRISTOPHER! TAILS! DINNER IS READY!" Ella called down from upstairs.

"Be right there!" I yelled back. "Come on Chris, we don't want to make Ella mad now, do we?" We both laughed and headed upstairs for dinner.

-END CHAPTER 2-

Well? How am I doing? Honestly, most of the second half of this chapter is fluff. I wasn't ready to move on a lot in the plot, but I have this personal thing that I don't like publishing chapters with less than 2,000 words. I'd love to be able to be one of those writers who can consistently hit 10K per chapter, but I'm just not at that level right now. Maybe I'll never be able to crank out those kinds of huge chapters in a timely fashion. Who knows. In regards to this chapter, I may not leave the second part as fluff… I'll think about it. I may decide to give this some sort of importance later on.

Some of you may have noticed that the url I gave you last chapter doesn't lead to a blog anymore. Why? Because I moved it. You see, I turned my personal blog into a multi-author blog for writers who use both fanfiction and the sister site fictionpress. This way, people can come to the website and not only keep tabs on some of their favorite authors, but also hopefully branch out to other styles of writing. The url is now: thewannabewriters*blogspot*com (Again, replace * with periods). If you can't get it right there is also a link on my profile page. And yes, any and all are welcome to apply. And the only thing applications are judged on is how seriously they handle their writing. I just don't want writers who can't be bothered to spell and grammar check their work to be up on the website is all. So come by, check it out, and all that. I try to post myself every few days.

Remember, don't suffer from insanity, enjoy it.

-NanoCarp


	3. Changes

Hello again every one. This is the first chapter of anything that I have written with my new writing program. Not that you care, so I'm gonna shut up now.

Edit: Okay, well, it's the first thing I've STARTED writing on my new program…

-3-3-3-3-3-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

Man, what is up with these weird dreams? I mean, last night wasn't so bad, I dreamed about the Chao. They were all acting kind of strange around me. Like they worshipped me or something. Go figure. It's just a dream anyways, right? I got out of bed and quickly realized that something was wrong.

"Whoops. I wore Tail's shoes to bed." Guess Ella's cooking really got to me, huh? Oh well. I decided to take the shoes off to let my feet breathe some. My feet were rather sore from the small needles for the neural interface. I pulled the first one off with only some minor pain from the needles popping out. I put my foot down and heard a squishing noise.

"What was that?" I asked aloud and looked to see a pool of something at my foot. Thankfully it turned out to just be water.

"Great. Who spilled water in my room and didn't clean it up?" I asked aloud to no one in particular. I decided to deal with it after getting the shoes off. I took off the other shoe, and put my foot down.

"What the… That wasn't there two seconds ago." There was now a second pool of water where I put my other foot down. Looking again, the other puddle had gotten bigger as well! I picked up my foot again and took a look at the bottom of my foot. There were a number of small holes in the bottom of my foot where the needles went in. That was to be expected. What I didn't expect was the fact that there was absolutely no blood coming from my foot at all! It seemed as if water was coming out of my foot instead of blood! What exactly is happening to me? Wait, if this is happening to the cuts on my foot, what about where I cut my finger on the airplane yesterday? I quickly pulled the bandage off my finger to see what it was doing. The cut was starting to scab over, well, kind of. It was covered by, what looked to be, thick, almost rigid water. But it wasn't cold to the touch like ice is. It was also tinted red, kind of like blood had gotten mixed in with this substance. Or, considering that this stuff seems to be coming from me, like my body had stopped producing blood and started this, and there was still some blood left in my system at the time. Well, at least I know that cuts will still scab. Ok, so it's not blood, but I really don't have another word for it. I went to the bathroom and grabbed some old towels to wrap around my feet to keep myself from making a mess for right now. To my surprise, I discovered that the cuts on my feet had already 'scabbed' over. Although this time there was no red in the 'scabs', guess that means there's no more actual blood in my system. I sighed and sat down in my bed for a while and tried to figure out what the heck is going on with me…

-3-3-3-3-3-

"Hey Chris!" I heard some one call. I sat straight up in bed and saw Tails standing in the doorway.

"What's up Tails?" I asked.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to come work some more with the rocket shoes."

"Ummm… maybe."

"What's wrong Chris?" Tails asked, a puzzled look on his face.

I sighed and pulled off my socks to show him the cuts on my feet.

-3-3-3-3-3-

(P.o.V.: Miles "Tails" Prower)

"Yeah, Chris, I told you about the needles for the neural interface yesterday. We both know about the cuts." I told Chris. I don't really see anything-

"No Tails, look closer." Chris said. "It's not the fact that I have the cuts, but the cuts themselves."

Okay… Someone's in a bit of a cranky mood today. I went ahead and inspected his feet more closely.

"What?" I don't know what is going on here. But Chris' scabs didn't appear to contain any blood at all. "Did you bleed at all Chris. I may not be a biology person, but I'm pretty sure cuts are supposed to bleed."

"Yeah, I bled. Kind of." Chris answered.

"Kind of?"

"I 'bled' water."

"WHAT? That doesn't make any sense. Besides, water doesn't solidify at body temperature." This was definitely weird. Ok, weird doesn't begin to cover it. Maybe if I took some samples, I could test the properties of… NO! Chris is NOT an experiment. Chris is my friend. I have to think about how I would feel in the situation. I settled for touching the 'scabs' and to my surprise, they were indeed solid and were actually warm. "Whatever this is, it isn't water, Chris."

"Okay then. What is it?"

"I have no idea."

"I'm just gonna keep calling it water until we figure out what it really is." Well I guess we do need to call it something. "Speaking of which, would you mind taking a bit of it or something and trying to figure out what it is exactly?"

"Only if it's okay with you. Which it apparently is… Anyways, grab the shoes and we can head down to the lab."

"Ok." Chris picked up the shoes and we headed off to the lab.

-3-3-3-3-3-

"First things first," I said, "We should try and draw some of this blood, for lack of a better word, and see what we can discover from that." I got out a needle and Chris shuddered.

"Does the needle… No never mind. I want to know what's happening to me. Just don't tell me until after your done, okay?" Chris said. I guess the needle was a bit big… But I need a decent amount of the stuff for the different tests. I stuck the needle into Chris' arm and pulled out some of the liquid.

"Just do it already!" Chris said, obviously a bit anxious.

"I'm already done Chris." I said, pulling out the needle.

"Ow!" Chris started "That hurt a bit when you pulled it out!"

"Sorry."

"Not your fault Tails. It was bound to hurt a bit…"

"Ok, well, that's that. I'll go put it into the computer. Why don't you get ready to test the shoes some more while I get the tests started?"

"Ok." Chris said and got the shoes on and strapped himself into the harness.

"Let's start with it at full tightness, just to warm up." I said, and Chris took off and held his balance perfectly, with little help from the harness. I was shocked. "Um Chris?" I asked, "I didn't get a chance to re-tighten the harness for you yet. You're up on your own…"

"WHAT?" He shouted and promptly lost his balance, falling on his face.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Well, we know you can do it now." Chris tried again, this time apparently noticing the subtle firing of the other thrusters for balance.

"It's weird," he said, "it's almost like I just know how to do it all of a sudden. Hmm…" I didn't like the look on his face.

"Chris what are you planning." I asked. Chris promptly grinned wildly and undid the harness completely. "CHRIS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! YOU COULD GET HURT -" Chris promptly begin flying around the room with an impressive amount of speed and grace, almost as if he was born with this gift. and had been using for his entire life. "- without that… wow." I trailed off.

Chris grinned at me from mid air. "Wow, this feels amazing! I can see why you like to fly so much!" Chris said, and then landed right in front of me. I was stunned speechless. "I guess this means that you want them back now, so you can give them to Sonic, huh?" He asked.

I shook myself out of my dazed state. "Naw, you can keep them, I'll make another pair for Sonic. They're the wrong size for his feet anyways."

"Really? Thanks so much Tails!" Chris jumped for joy and gave me a big hug. I blushed a bit.

"No biggie. Just try not to hurt yourself with them. Now, let's head outside and see what you can really do with those. Then we'll come back in, and check the results of your tests."

It turns out, Chris could do a lot with them. He even ended up doing a cartwheel in midair when he startled a bird which panicked and crashed into him. He flipped over, but put his legs out in a way to maintain thrust in almost every direction. The momentum was enough to flip him back over with little loss of hight.

"You really have a knack for this, don't you Chris?" I laughed.

-3-3-3-3-3-

(P.o.V.: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik)

"Deccoe, Boccoe." I said.

"Yes Doctor?" responded the two metal morons simultaneously.

"Status report."

"Yes Doctor." Deccoe said, "We currently have enough troops immediately available to invade Station Square."

"However," Boccoe continued, "as you are aware, factory 4 is low on lance materials, so is now producing them at a reduced rate to preserve remaining materials. Factory number 7, the one assigned to produce the electrified shields, as run out of the alloy for the shields entirely, and is now producing stock robots."

"I do believe that it's time to attack then." I turned on a loudspeaker to address the regiment of battle ready robots outside my command room, which is also connected to many speakers like it at each holding area for the robots. "You have your mission. Remember, harm as few civilians as possible, capture if possible, but use as much force as needed to accomplish our goals. Now MOVE OUT!"

"Doctor, why are we taking prisoners, and for that matter, not harming civilians?" Deccoe asked.

"You buffoon!" I roared "How can I rule someone who is dead?" CLANG! I slapped the idiot robot.

And with that, my invasion began.

-3-3-3-3-3-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

"Goodnight everyone!" I called back as I went up to bed. As I heard various 'goodnight's from downstairs, I reflected on today a bit. Tails said he had discovered that my blood was now essentially nothing but the blood plasma. Or at least something extremely similar.

"Christopher Thorndyke."

"Who said that?" called out. I looked around my room in a bit of a panic.

"Calm down. The time has come. I must explain some things to you…"

I almost immediately fell unconscious. Luckily, I landed on my bed.

-3-3-3-3-3-

"Hello again Christopher." came a voice.

"What?" I couldn't see anything. Nothing but darkness all around. I spun around to try and find the source of the voice. Suddenly, I came face to face with, "CHAOS! What do you want with me? Please don't hurt me!"

He laughed. "Relax Christopher. No harm will come to you, at least not at my hands." I sighed in relief. "As for what I want," he continued, "I simply wish to shed light on some of your concerns."

"I really doubt that," I said, "But seeing as I'm in no position to argue…"

Chaos chuckled. "I understand your uneasiness, seeing as I have attacked you and your friends in the past. However if you would allow me to explain my actions…"

'This should be interesting' I thought, and simply nodded.

"First you must understand my, and now your, role on the planet. We -"

"Wait, my role?"

"I will get to that in a moment. As I was saying, we are responsible for the well being of the chao. Now, the Chao rely heavily on the planet, and their health is directly connected to the planet's well being. As for my actions, I have no excuse. I was stupid and gullible."

"Gullible?"

"Yes. The one you know as Dr. Eggman, convinced me that the chao could not survive on this planet. He told me that if I helped him to destroy the planet and find the Chaos Emeralds, we could return to our own world, and save the chao. I now realize that the chao have adapted to life on this planet, and are as much in tune with this planet as the one we come from. However, it is too late for me to repent. you see, as punishment for my actions, I am dying."

"Wow… I'm… sorry…" I actually genuinely felt bad for the guy. Eggman's tricks have actually killed him. Anyone who Eggman hurts, is pretty much a friend of mine.

"It is not your fault Christopher. The fault is mine, and mine alone for not seeing the chao's link with the new planet sooner, and for believing Eggman. My time would have been coming somewhat soon anyways. However, none of the chao are ready to become the next chaos. I was left with only one option: To merge myself with another living being, who would retain my abilities upon my death."

"WHAT! YOU'RE TURNING ME INTO YOU?" I screamed. I couldn't believe it. "I don't want to formless blob! No offense, but I have my own life to live."

"In hindsight, I probably should have seen that response coming. No. I am not turning you into me. I am merging with you. You will gain my abilities, but you will, for the most part, retain your own body. You will come to be… for lack of a better way to explain it, made of the same substance as I am. However, by default, your body shape will remain unchanged. As we speak here, your body is going through the final phase of the transformation. You may have noticed before this, that your insides were changing."

"Well, my blood did…"

Chaos laughed. "That was not only your blood. All of your internal systems and organs have already liquified. Anyways, by the time you wake up, your body will be done changing. You will be translucent, and will be able to collapse your body into a pool of liquid if you so desire. The last change to your body at present is that you will be able to stretch out your arms, as they are made of liquid. Keep in mind that they cannot stretch forever, and will become less powerful the more they are stretched out, since they become thinner. The last thing I must tell you is about the chaos emeralds. You will have the ability, as I did, to absorb them and become more powerful. For your information, you can in fact 'spit' them back out, to regain a previous form. Each emerald will change your body in some way. Even I cannot tell you how, though, as this is something that is unique to each chaos, seeing as it has much to do with their state of mind and personality. The changes are now complete Christopher, and I am done explaining to you. I am sorry to have to thrust this upon you without your permission, but I had no choice. You were the only one I knew I could trust to receive this responsibility and power without worry of abuse. I will remain with you for awhile, until my time comes, so if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask me. Awaken now, Christopher the Chaos. Feel your connection with the world around, and protect it, and the chao."

Chaos dissolved, and I had a feeling it would be the last time I ever actually saw him again.

-3-3-3-3-3-

"Ugh. My aching head." I groaned. I put my hand up to my head and noticed a distinct squishing noise. I pulled my hand down and looked. "WOAH!" I yelled and almost fell out of bed. I know Chaos warned me of it, but hearing about being able to see through your body, and it actually happening are two completely different things. I decided to look my new body over. The first thing I noticed, was that I was wearing no clothes. The next thing I noticed, I had a rather nice 6 pack of abs that I didn't have before. 'Cool, instant workout' I thought to myself. I heard a chuckling inside my head, which I could only assume was Chaos. I decided to try the whole stretchy arm thing out. I reached over and was able to turn the lights on in my room from my bed! It was really cool to know I could make my arm longer than 15 feet! 'Okay, first question. What happened to my clothes?'

'Did I ever wear clothes?' said Chaos from inside my head.

'Point taken.' I thought back.

"Christopher! Breakfast is ready!" I heard Ella calling from downstairs.

'Hmmm. Second question, do I still need to eat, and if so, what?'

'Well, you do still need to eat, but not anywhere near as much. You should be able to get by on a few pieces of fruit each day. Or at least the equivalent. You can still eat anything you want, but you may find your tastes have changed.'

"Well then," I said aloud to no one in particular. "Let's get this over with then, shall we." I took one last look over my body, and noticed something. "Wait, what happened to my… umm…"

'That's easy. You know that Chao are technically genderless, right? Well, a Chaos is technically an adult form of a Chao. So, you don't really have a gender anymore. Don't mistake that to mean you'll be more girly or anything. Chao and Chaos still have male and female personalities and whatnot, just no genders when it comes to mating.'

I screamed. I think that they heard in China.

-3-3-3-3-3-

(P.o.V.: Sonic)

I heard Chris scream, much louder than I've ever head anyone else scream before. Something had to be wrong. I got up to his room before he could even close his mouth.

"Chris what's - " I almost fell flat on my face. "CHAOS!"

-3-3-3-3-3-

-END CHAPTER 3-

HORRAY! I got over my lazy streak. And you all get another chapter. Sorry it took me so long, but I actually discovered that I have a life. Go figure. Anyways, thanks for reading. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with Sonic Unleashed, that EggmanLand level WILL NOT BEAT ME! (Despite my 5 previous Game Overs on it)

Beta-Reader: Aleron's Sword.


	4. Exposed

(P.o.V.: Sonic)

I can't believe it! Chaos got into Chris' room somehow!

"How did you get here and what did you do with Christopher?" I yelled at the thing standing before me.

"Sonic! It's me! Chris!" the monster said, a terrified look on its face.

"Yeah right. You can't expect me to believe that!" I shouted back, "Now stop playing dumb and tell me what you did with Chris!" I got ready to use a Homing Attack on it. That should at least stun the thing, right?

"Sonic! Please wait! I'm telling the truth!" I ignored it, and charged. "Son-!" it cried as I made contact, Chaos flew backwards, crashing into Chris' bed. I smirked, another bad guy bites the dust, for now at least.

"I'm gonna ask you again. WHERE. IS. CHRISTOPHER?"

"Sonic! Please, you gotta believe me!" it said again.

"Prove it!" There was no way that that… thing could really be Christopher. I mean, I could see right through him… People don't randomly turn into liquid monsters.

"Ummm…"

"I knew it! You're just trying to trick me!"

"Hold on!" Tails said from behind me.

"How long have you been here?" I asked him.

"Long enough to see you smash into that thing claiming to be Christopher. Listen Sonic, give him a chance. There's been some weird stuff happening to Chris lately… It really could be him."

"Yeah Sonic… If you had given me a chance to finish," Chaos said getting up. "Remember when we met? I fished you out of the swimming pool in the backyard. Since you couldn't, and still can't, swim."

"Whah… but then that means that I… Aww man."

"Yeah, exactly. Now if you'll excuse me. I need to get away for now. I just finished talking to Chaos. Apparently Egghead tricked him into working for him, and now for that, Chaos is dying. Seems that I'm supposed to be the next Chaos now… Protecting the environment and therefore the Chao… or something like that." Chaos - I mean, Chris said, mumbling the last bit. He got up and walked right past me, looking like he was about to cry.

"So… Now what happens?" I asked, speaking to no one in particular.

"I think we give Chris some time to cool off." Tails piped up. "I mean, he DID just have this thrust on him, and now you come along and try to kill him!"

"Hey! It's not completely my fault! I thought he was Chaos!"

"You didn't even give him a chance from what I saw! You're going to have to apologize later."

Tails was right, on both accounts. I needed to give Chris some space to deal with this issue, but I also needed to apologize to him.

"Well, I guess while we're waiting, I can show you something I've been working on, with some help from Chris."

"Ok" I said and we headed downstairs to Tails' lab. On the way I overheard Chris saying something about the Chao Garden to Cream and Cheese. Huh. Oh well, maybe he's gonna go cool off there?

-4-4-4-4-4-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

Why? What did I do to deserve this? I can't believe that Sonic, my best friend, attacked me! I mean, I do look different but still…

"Garden!" a small voice called out from downstairs. It took me a moment to remember that it was Cheese's voice. I'm still not used to understanding him.

"I love you too, Cheese!" I heard Cream say back. I turned the corner to see Cheese giving Cream a hug.

"You know, Cream," I said, "Cheese said he wants to go the garden."

Cheese nodded, and then proceeded to tackle into me, knocking me over.

"Come too! Come too!" Cheese shouted.

"Ok, ok. I'll come with you." I said. I couldn't help but grin. Hanging out with Cream, Cheese, and the other Chao is always a great way to cheer up. You just can't help being happy around the Chao…

"SONIC!" Cream yelled, "Chaos is-"

"Cream. Relax please. It's me, Chris." I said, getting up. "I know I don't look like it but, it's still me on the inside…"

Cream stared at me for a few moments, then giggled. "It sure doesn't look like Chris inside all that goo!"

"You know what I mean!"

"Don't worry Chris. I believe you. It would explain why you could understand the Chao earlier, and why they all wanted to play with you at the same time."

I smiled. "Well then, shall we go?"

"Just a sec. I'm going to go pack some lunch real quick, and let Sonic know where we're going."

"Ok." I said as Cream went to the kitchen. I noticed Cheese stayed behind with me. "Aren't you going to go help Cream?" I asked.

"Want play!" Cheese called and started flying around my head. Normally I probably would have just brushed Cheese off. But then again, not much has been normal recently.

"Okay then Cheese. You want to play?" Cheese nodded, I smiled. "You better RUN THEN!" I yelled, giggling. Cheese's little orb became an exclamation point as he began to fly away from me, giggling as well. We ran around the house for a few minutes, playing tag. I felt like I had a boundless supply of energy. At least until Cream came around the corner between me and Cheese.

"OH CRAP!" I yelled, as I ran straight into Cream. I landed right on top of her and we both went down, Cream dropping the basket she was carrying. I quickly got up and began apologizing as Cheese and me helped her up. "I'm sorry Cream. We were playing tag and I wasn't paying enough attention."

"It's okay Chris," Cream said, "I should've been paying more attention too." Cream picked up her basket and we departed for the Chao Garden.

We were about halfway to the garden, when I heard something.

"Cream, do you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" she asked.

"It sounds almost like… machinery. But what would…" I never got to finish that thought, because at that moment, five or six EggFighters marched over the hill to our left. "CREAM! RUN!" I yelled. My only thought was that Cream and Cheese were in danger. They were even younger than me. I knew that the robots would start chasing them if they could.

"But what about you Chris?" Cream asked.

"I'll be okay! You run and go get Sonic! I'll hold them off!"

"Be careful!" Cream called as she and Cheese ran off. I turned back to face the robots.

"Me and my big mouth…" I mumbled to myself. Now I had to figure out how was going to take care of these 'bots without getting myself killed. I don't have to break them, just keep them from chasing Cream and Cheese until Sonic shows up. But I'm not fast like Sonic is, or strong like Knuckles, or… wait. I'm Chaos now right? I should be able to hold my own against a few of Eggman's worst model. Let's see now… what did Tails tell me about EggFighters…

I was brought out of my thoughts when I noticed one of the EggFighters winding up a punch. I managed to duck under the fist just in time, and on instinct threw my own punch. Imagine my surprise when my fist passed clean through the 'bot's shoulder. I then made my first mistake in battle by stopping to stare at the damage I had done. Another EggFighter had snuck up behind me and delivered a massive uppercut to my right side. I flew to my left and into the air. At this point there wasn't much I could do but brace for the impact of landing. If only I had those shoes that Tails made, then I could use them to right myself in the air and maybe even knock into one of the robots…

"WHOA!" I shouted as a jet of fire shot from my feet. I could feel something in my feet moving, twisting, I looked down and saw what appeared to be the insides of Tail's shoes IN my body. So now I can fly too? Cool. I decided to give my idea a shot. I held my fist out and flew straight at one of the robots.

SMACK!

Ow. Unfortunately, the robot saw me coming at was able to bat me out of the way. I sailed away and smacked right into another robot.

"Sonic makes this stuff look easy…" I mumbled. I decided to get up and stick with a more… conventional fighting style for now. I threw a punch at the robot I ran into. I didn't break through, but it did fly backwards before crashing into another 'bot. Apparently I had done something right, because both the robots then exploded. I can only assume I short circuited one or both of them. 'Okay,' I thought to myself, 'two down… one, two, three, four more to go.' I ducked another punch and preformed a leg sweeping kick that Mr. Tanaka had taught me. The result was a bit more spectacular than I expected. My leg went straight through one of the robot's legs. I turned away and threw a punch at the first robot, the one I had taken an arm off of. I knocked that one out completely, as it flew away and exploded. Unfortunately, I was too quick to count the one I had broke the leg of, as it delivered a hard punch to my back. I managed to throw my arms up to protect myself from the impact of landing. The robot I flew into wasn't so lucky. It promptly exploded in my face.

"Ugghh…" I moaned, getting up, "How am I not dead now?" I shook off the shock, and looked myself over real quick. I was sore all over, but that was nothing compared to how I looked. I grimaced. There were metal bits and pieces lodged in my body! Thankfully, no longer had any vital internal organs to hit. I was sore as heck, but I couldn't afford to rest yet. I got an idea all of a sudden, and figured it was worth a try. I got close to the remaining robot. OK, so more than one is currently functional, but the one that still has all it's parts. I lifted my leg into the air over my head and gently fired the thrusters on the bottom of my feet. I then brought my leg back down in a sort of axe kick. But I didn't come down on the robot, rather, right in front of the bot. The flames from my jets ended up cutting a gouge out of the front of the robot! I even managed to get away before this one exploded! I kicked the last bot a few times, but I wasn't quite so lucky in getting away from that one… The last thing I remember was being glad that I had been able to defend Cream and Cheese by myself…

-4-4-4-4-4-

(P.o.V.: Chuck "Grandpa" Thorndyke)

You know, I didn't think too much of it when Chris screamed; I was a bit worried when I heard the smashing noises coming from his room; and I admit that I relaxed after Sonic and Tails came back downstairs. You can't exactly blame me though, I figured if something was wrong Sonic or Tails would have let me know. So when neither of them came back downstairs, I assumed that Chris had just stubbed his toe really badly or something. I decided to head back to my room for awhile. So I excused myself from the table, and left.

-4-4-4-4-4-

I ran into Tails as I was coming back to my room from the bathroom a bit later. He looked a bit, ok, more than a bit, glum. I couldn't help but wonder what was wrong, but I decided to mind my own business this time. So I started mindlessly gazing out the window. That's when I saw it.

"T-Ta-Tails…" I stuttered out, and Tails seemed to snap out of his trance and look at me. "Ch-Chaos… is in our f-front yard… With Cream and Cheese…"

"Chuck…" Tails said, myself only half listening, "Calm down."

"Why should I calm down? That thing almost destroyed an entire city! And it's outside taking a walk with Cream and Chee-!" I was interrupted when Tails hit me. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to get my attention.

"Chuck, calm down. If you stop panicking, I can explain. You know what? Better yet, let's get everyone together, and I'll explain it to everyone at once."

-4-4-4-4-4-

(P.o.V.: Miles "Tails" Prower)

I can tell right now, things are gonna be crazy around here for a long time. Of course, this isn't anything too unusual, but still, it would be nice to get a break from all the stress of fighting Eggman and other bad guys. I told Chuck to help me round everyone up so I could break the news to everyone at once. I really don't feel like explaining it over and over again.

I started down to the lab where I was just with Sonic. Hopefully he's still there and I can get him to get everyone together quickly. Of course, he already knows about Chris, but he is the fastest around, and I want to get this done with as soon as possible.

"Hey! Sonic!" I called, about halfway down the stairs into the lab.

"What's up Tails?" He asked.

"I want to tell everyone about what happened to Chris all at once. Can you help me gather everyone in the living room?"

"Sure thing, pal!" he said as he zipped past me with his usual enthusiasm.

By the time I reached the living room, Sonic was already there waiting on me. "I told everyone in the house. Cream and Cheese aren't here though…" he said.

"Ok" I said and sat down on the couch. Nothing much left to now but wait.

"Oh Tails?" Sonic said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"About those shoes… They're cool and all, but they just aren't my kind of thing, you know? I think I'll stick with running."

"Oh… Ok…" I said, "I guess I can understand that, with how bashed up you got trying to use them." I chuckled a bit at that.

-4-4-4-4-4-

"Umm… ok then. How to begin…?" I wondered aloud. Honestly, this whole thing was destined to be extremely awkward, so I guess there's only so much damage my lacking public speaking skills can do.

"So," I started again, "You guys all remember Chaos, right?"

The group nodded.

"Can you just get to the point already Tails?" Amy butt in.

"I am Amy." I sighed and then continued, "Well, it seems that Chaos wasn't really a bad guy, so to speak. Rather he was a victim of one of Eggman's tricks."

"Like Kunckle-head." Sonic cut in, chuckling.

"Yes, Sonic, like Knuckles."

"So, what does that have to do with Chris?" Amy asked again.

"Jeeze Amy, you're more impatient than Sonic right now!" Chuck cut in.

I cleared my throat. "If I may continue?" I said.

The others nodded.

"As I was saying, Chaos was actually tricked by Eggman. Chris didn't tell me how exactly, but I presume it was something along the lines of 'Destroy this planet, and we can return to our own!'. Well, it turns out that Chaos is supposed to be the protector of nature, and the Chao."

All of a sudden, Cream and Cheese burst into the room, with worried looks on their faces.

"What's wrong you two?" Asked Sonic.

"SONIC! Please! Chris needs your help! There were some robots and, and-" Cream choked out.

"I'm on my way. You guys were going to the Garden, right?"

Cream nodded.

"I hope everything's all right…" Chuck murmured, and the others nodded in agreement.

"It - It's okay… I'm sure Mister Sonic will be able to help Chris!" Cream said, perking up.

I sighed again. I will never understand the mood swings that Cream has… Plus, now I'm on a time limit to tell them, before Sonic and Chris get back.

"Well," I said, grabbing everyone's attention again, "like I was saying, Chaos is supposed to protect the Chao and nature. Well, something happened, and again, I presume Eggman's involvement, and now Chaos is dead."

"We know that, Sonic killed him!" Spoke up Amy again.

"Nope, actually Amy, Sonic didn't kill Chaos. He defeated him, reverted him to Chaos Zero, and all that, but he didn't die. Chaos can't really be killed like that. It turns out though, that he had to choose a successor, and, well… he um…" I never got a chance to finish that sentence.

"Got him!" Called Sonic bursting through the door, holding Chris' unconscious body.

"Surprise?" I said weakly.

-4-4-4-4-4-

Well, how's everyone doing? I decided to save all my notes till the end this time, and there's a lot of them. I hope you've enjoyed my work so far! Anyway, here's what I got to say about this chapter.

First, sorry it took so long. As you may or may not know, my computer was broken for awhile which brought progress to a screeching halt, since this computer is the only one I have that can use my writing program. I do admit though, that that is not the only reason it took so long. Most of it was just me being lazy, or uninspired.

Now, the battle. Holy crap. I actually did it. This is my first ever real battle scene. So I feel kind of awesome about myself right now. I have to warn you though, don't expect future battles to be anywhere near as detailed. Why? Because they will be increasing in scale, and I had a hard enough time keeping track of everything in this simple little 1 vs 6! You want me to write every kill in a 3/4 vs thousands? Um, not happening. At least, not if you want to see a chapter within the next few years. Besides, Sonic would shoot through them so fast, that it wouldn't be worth it.

You know, I'm just now noticing something in this fight. A lot of influence from my Tae Kwon Doe training made it's way into this fight. Half of the moves that Chris preforms, were moves I was taught by the time I got my Black Belt. For example, the axe kick is a warm-up move, and one of the first few kicks you learn, as well as being required to use it to break a board to earn your dark blue belt at my first studio (We had to move before I got my Black Belt…). Plus, I had to scrap many versions of the fight, because some of the stuff Chris was doing, had him preforming moves that should be way above his skill level. The first version had Chris using some advanced kicks and spins that I even still have trouble pulling off from time to time. Although, it would help if I still went to a dojo (Or was a super-mutant blob thing), but we just don't have the money anymore to keep paying for it.

Awhile ago, in chapter 2 I mentioned that I might leave the second bit as fluff. Now that this chapter is out, I can explain myself without spoilers, cause I hate spoilers, even when it's blatantly obvious what will happen. By fluff, I meant that the hover/flight shoes having no effect on the storyline. So, if I had left it as pure fluff, then Chris wouldn't be keeping the shoes in his body, but I decided to let him keep them. I'll try to keep their use to a reasonable level. You know, so we don't see a Gary Stu thing going on… I used that term right, right? The point is that regardless of what I decided, that chapter would not have changed at all, so no worries about the silliness with Tails disappearing on you. I need that to hit my word goal.

Now, to address a couple questions I've been getting somewhat consistently…

Shadow. If you know anything about Shadow, you know he was introduced in Sonic Adventure 2. This story takes place BEFORE that. If I do decide to include Shadow, I'll basically be re-writing when/how they meet. As of right now, I haven't decided, but I'm kind of leaning towards not. I already have 15 characters to worry about, and I'm not sure about adding more.

Rouge. Ok, no one has asked me yet, but I'm gonna beat you all to the punch here. I'm not sure if she'll show up, or how much of a role she'll play. Seeing as she HAS been introduced in the "Sonic X" storyline by Sonic Adventure, she is more likely to make an appearance than Shadow is, but again, I don't know if I want to deal with 16 or 17 main characters.

Lastly I want to remind you that Sonic and all related characters, places, or events are © SEGA, this story and the plot, on the other hand, is © "NanoCarp".


	5. Angel Island

(P.o.V.: Sonic)

"SONIC! Please! Chris needs your help! There were some robots and, and-" Cream cried.

"I'm on my way. You guys were going to the Garden, right?" I asked, Cream nodded and I was gone. It didn't take me that long before I came upon a huge mess. It looked like the scraps of what used to be anywhere from four to, I'd say, 7 robots, depending on what model they were.

"HEY! CHRIS! YOU THERE PAL?" I called out. No answer. I tried again.

"CHIRS! YOU OUT THERE?" Again. No answer. I began to fear the worst. I started checking the rubble, and almost passed right over his body, not recognizing him.

"Whoops." I said aloud to no one in particular. It looked like Chris was just knocked out, thankfully. I picked him up and headed back. Not quite as quickly as I would have liked though, you gotta slow down when you have passengers, especially when they can't hold on for themselves.

"Got him!" I called, running into the meeting room.

Everyone stopped and stared at Chris.

"Surprise?" Tails said, sounding rather unsure of himself. "Ugh… Sonic, will you take Chris to the lab? I have some medical equipment there."

"Sure thing pal!"

As I headed over I could hear the confused voices of the others.

-5-5-5-5-5-

(P.o.V.: Christopher Thorndyke)

"… -any did you say?" I heard a voice…

"It looked like between 4 and 7." said another.

"Wow. I'm impressed."

"Me too. Who know Chris had it in 'im?"

Wait a sec…

"Sonic…? Tails…?" I muttered weakly.

"Hey there buddy!" Sonic said, "Welcome back to the land of the living!"

"Sonic!" Tails chastised, "Now's not the time for jokes!"

I chuckled weakly, then coughed. "It's okay Tails."

"How you feeling Chris?" Tails asked, voice full of concern.

"Like crap," I answered, "but I'm pretty sure I'll live." I smiled.

"That's good!" Sonic cheered. "So, tell me. How many were there?"

"What?"

"Robots. How many of 'em did you scrap?"

"Oh… I think it was six."

"Awesome! That's pretty good for your first solo battle!"

"Thanks Sonic."

"Well Chris," Tails said, "It looks like you're good to go."

"So, Egghead is back, huh?" Sonic said.

"So it would seem Sonic." I said getting up from the table they had laid me on.

"Question is," Tails chimed in, "what does he want this time?"

"What does he ever want?" Sonic chuckled.

"World Domination." Sonic and I said at the same time.

"Uh guys…" Tails said, "You might wanna look at this…" he said ushering us to his computer.

"This can't be good." I said.

I looked at the screen. Eggman had taken over Station Square.

"Well guys, looks like Egghead's gotten a bit too comfortable. What do you say we go knock him down a few pegs?" Sonic excitedly asked.

I grinned. "I get to help this time, right?"

-5-5-5-5-5-

(P.o.V.: Miles "Tails" Prower)

"So basically," Sonic said, "Egghead somehow slipped under the radar, and pulled coupe."

"I'm not sure "coupe" is the right word here, Sonic." I said. "A coupe usually doesn't announce itself to the public like this. But you do have the right idea. Now the only question is, what do we do about it."

"Same thing we always do Tails!" Sonic said with a smirk, "We go kick Egghead's butt!"

I heard Chris sigh. "If only it were that simple," he said, "we have to assume that since Eggman was able to pull this off, he's expecting resistance, as evidenced by the patrol I encountered."

I nodded, Chris did have a point.

"I bet," he continued, "that Eggman has set up a large defense to keep him and his domination safe. Of course, he's probably also set up bases in other areas to help maintain control."

"What if we took out those other bases?" I chimed in. "That way, Eggman's main base has less support."

"That should work. Too bad we don't know where those bases are." Chris said.

"Hey guys!" Sonic said, "I just realized something."

"And that would be?" I asked.

"Egghead doesn't seem to have any super doomsday weapon this time around! Maybe the emeralds are still up for grabs!"

"Seeing as he hasn't made a move to chase us and get the one I have for the Tornado X, I'd have to agree with you there."

"That doesn't help us find them though. For all we know he could be holding them. After all, they don't do us a whole lot of good without all seven, so he only needs to hang on to one of them to keep us from having our ace." Chris chimed in, smirking a bit at Sonic as he finished.

"Speaking of the Emerald in the Tornado, why don't we give it to Chris? A power up for him wouldn't be a bad thing." Sonic said.

"Hold on Sonic." Chris said, "That Emerald IS the Tornado X's power source. If we take it out, we loose one of our biggest assets in the air, which could be vital in the fight against Eggman. I don't think we should give that up unless we have to."

"We do have the classic Tornado, Chris." I said.

"Remember the incident with E-90? The classic Tornado just isn't good enough."

"Of course I remember! That was the whole reason we built the Tornado X!"

"If Eggman beat us in the air once, I don't want to risk it happening again. Maybe if you could find an alternate power source or something, then I'd be okay with taking the Emerald, but for now, let's leave it there."

Chris has a point. E-90 swatted the classic Tornado out of the sky like a little fly. Plus the weapons, support systems, and even carrying capacity of the Tornado X have proven useful against Eggman in the past. If we could find something else to provide the power that the Chaos Emerald gives off the maybe…

"Hey, speaking of power," Sonic said, interrupting my thoughts, "We should see if we could get Knuckles to help out!"

"Somehow, I doubt that he's going to fight with us." I said.

"Maybe, but he IS the guardian of the Master Emerald, right?" Chris asked. "Maybe he can give us an idea on where the other Chaos Emeralds are."

"I guess that would be worth a trip to Angel Island."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sonic said. "Let's get going!" he continued as he ran out the door.

I shook my head. "Typical Sonic."

Chris laughed.

-5-5-5-5-5-

(P.o.V.: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik)

Everything is going according to plan. Station Square is in the palm of my hand. I have bases all around the world, exerting control over other nations, and it's only a matter of time before I control them too! The best part is I haven't seen any signs of that blasted hedgehog!

"Dr. Eggman, Sir!"

"What is it Decoe?" I asked.

"Um… we uh…"

"Decoe. I don't have the time OR patience for this." I spat. "Tell me what you need to say, OR GET LOST!"

"Yes, Doctor. We- We lost contact with one of our smaller patrols today sir. Reports show that the 'bot's engaged in combat and were destroyed."

"WHAT?"

"Yes sir. The squad was 6 basic Egg-Fighter models."

"Did we get any useful information from the attack?"

"There was one video clip taken by a robot a few moments before it was destroyed. As per protocol, it sent the footage to us. However, the image is blurry and the video is short, due to the fact that the 'boy wa-"

"Yes yes," I interrupted, "It was destroyed before it could finish uploading. Let's see the footage."

"Yes sir, Right away sir!" Decoe said.

"So… It would appear that our friend Chaos doesn't like us anymore. How sad. I guess his defeat at Sonic's hands wasn't enough. I guess we'll just have to crush him too." Something seemed off though. Chaos doesn't seem… as sure of himself. Nah. I must be seeing things. The clip is too short to confirm or deny that.

"Bocoe. I want any future clips with Chaos marked for review."

"Yes sir!"

-5-5-5-5-5-

(P.o.V.: Christopher Thorndyke)

"I can see the Island!" Tails said, pointing out in front of us.

"AWESOME!" I cheered. I was glad that we were almost there. It's been a boring ride. Sonic even almost fell asleep on the wing of the plane!

Tails landed the Tornado X, and as I was getting out, I felt some… sort of presence I guess would be the way to describe it. "You guys feel that?" I asked.

"Feel what?" Tails asked me back.

"Uh… it's hard describe. Almost like the feeling you get when someone's watching you, but not quite the same…"

"Sorry Chris, I don't feel it."

"HEY! KNUCKLES! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE!" Sonic called out.

"SONIC!" I said, "What was that for? He's probably at the Master Emerald, not here."

"You said you thought someone was watching us."

"No Sonic, I didn't."

"Oh. Oh well." He shrugged. "It's not like Eggman's here or something."

"We should get moving guys." Tails said.

I nodded, and we started walking. Angel Island is beautiful. There are trees everywhere, but they aren't quite dense enough to make travel difficult. The other plants were pretty as well. As we got deeper in the island I started noticing ruins. They looked like shrines almost. That's when I noticed that the feeling from earlier was getting stronger. Like the presence was closer…

"Crap…" Sonic said.

"What's up guys?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts.

"The path splits here. I don't remember it splitting before…" Sonic said.

"Probably because you were moving so fast." Tails said. "Do you know which way you went?"

"Nope…"

"Figures…"

I felt the presence again… 'I wonder if whoever that is knows which way to go…' I thought. Suddenly, I felt the presence seem to point down the left path… I balked, and Sonic noticed.

"What's up Chris?" He asked.

"You know that feeling I told you about earlier?"

"Yeah."

"I think it says we should go that way." I said, pointing down the left path.

"What?" Tails and Sonic asked at the same time.

"I can't really explain it, but I trust, who or whatever this is. I think it's trying to help…"

"If you say so…" Tails said, and followed me down the left hand path.

A few minutes of walking later we came to a bit of a clearing. I stopped. The presence seemed to stop telling me where to go… It didn't go away, but it just stopped pointing. "Huh." I said aloud as I turned the corner into the clearing, a bit ahead of the others.

"What's u-" Sonic started to say.

"Never did I think you would show your face around here again, traitor!"

"What?" I called, "Who said that?"

Knuckles jumped down from a tree not too far off. "Huh. Picked up some new tricks now did we? Not like talking is gonna save you from the beating I'm gonna deliver!"

"WHOA! Whoa whoa whoa! Knuckles calm down! It's not what it looks like!"

"Why should I trust you? HUH? YOU betrayed me, and the Master Emerald. YOU are supposed to be a GUARDIAN spirit, not some force of destruction!" Knuckles yelled, his right fist flying into my stomach area.

I grunted on impact, and flew back into a tree.

"I should have figured you'd be able to get around the new trap I installed, but I won't let you harm the Master Emerald again!" He yelled, throwing a left hook at my face. Running on instinct I threw my arm up to take the hit instead of my head. To my surprise, the blow was all but stopped by my arm. Don't get me wrong, it hurt like crazy, but barely any of the force reached my head.

"HEY! KNUCKLES! CHILL! THAT'S CHRIS!" I heard Sonic yell.

"What the HELL are you talking about Sonic? That's OBVIOUSLY Chaos! What are you two even doing here?" Knuckles yelled back.

"We're here looking for you!" Tails said. "And if you'd stop your crazed rampage for a minute and look a bit closer, I think you'd realize that that is Chris!"

All of a sudden, I… I kind of heard a voice. Maybe 'voice' is the wrong term. It was like the words just kind of popped into my head. '_Stay your fists, my guardian. Your friends speak the truth._' As I heard this, Knuckles seemed to calm down a bit.

"Please tell me that I'm not the only one that heard that…" I said aloud.

"Heard what?" asked Sonic.

"It was kinda like someone said, 'Stay your fists, my guardian. Your friends speak the truth.'" As I said that, Knuckles' eyes grew wide. "What did I do now, Knuckles?" I asked him.

"You heard it?" he asked me.

I nodded…

"I think you're both losin' it." Sonic said.

"HEY!" Knuckles and I shouted at the same time.

-5-5-5-5-5-

(P.o.V.: Knuckles)

I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself, and keep the Master Emerald's advice in mind. "Chris" on the other hand, started an argument with Sonic. I could tell that they weren't being completely serious. I decided to take the opportunity to look over Chaos, and to say I was shocked to see that he actually did look like Christopher!

"Knuckles heard it too! Right Knuckles?" Chris called, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Yes Chris, but I doubt they did." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"That voice you heard. It was the words of the Master Emerald."

"WHAT?" shouted everyone else.

"Why don't you explain what's going on with Chris first, then I'll try to explain the voice." I said.

"Basically, Chaos died because Eggman tricked him into attacking the planet, and Chaos picked me to take his place as the guardian." Chris said.

"Then that makes my job a bit easier." I said, "The guardian must have a connection with nature and the 'powers that be', so to speak. This includes the Master Emerald."

Chris nodded, "That would make sense I guess."

"Now then, did you all have a reason for coming here?" I asked.

"Actually, yes," Tails said, "we came to get your help."

"Eggman's made a move on the surface. We figured we should gather all the help we can." Chris added.

"As much as I'd love to help pound Eggman, I have to stay and guard the Master Emerald." I said.

_The Young Guardian needs training, which only you can provide. Go._

"NO! I won't leave you defenseless!" I called to the Master Emerald.

"Who's he talking to?" Sonic asked.

"The Master Emerald just told him to come with us to train me… I think." said Chris. I nodded.

_The Fence is strong, and the Signal is ready._

"Fine." I said to the Emerald. "I guess that means I'm coming with you guys."

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Sonic, "Let's get to the Tornado X and get down to business!"

-5-5-5-5-5-

Holy crap! An update in less than a month! The world must be ending! I don't know why, but I was more inspired than usual for this one. Let's hope it keeps up, though, I probably just jinxed it.

… There. Knocked on wood.

Just so everyone knows, I've been using DeviantArt a lot recently. There's a link to my account on my profile, so feel free to check it out.

Special thanks this chapter to Aleron's Sword. You haven't seen much of it yet, but he helped me, to use a phrase we (OK, he) coined at the start of writing this chapter, untie a "plot knot". Just like with my comments about the fluff between Chris and Tails in chapter 2, you'll have to wait to see what I mean. I'm not telling you what happens next.

A shout out to Crush 40! For those who don't know they are the band responsible the vast majority of Sonic music. Some of my favorites off their album are "I Am… All of Me", "With Me ~Massive Power Mix~", "Free", "All Hail Shadow", and "Fire Woman". As well as the smash hits, "Open Your Heart" and "Live & Learn", the themes from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 respectively. Check 'em out on iTunes. I've been listening to them while writing this since chapter 3, the music seems to help my creative juices.

FINAL CREATION TIME: 4 Hours 45 Minutes (Time spent actively working)

* * *

><p><strong>UPDATE: No! I'm not dead. Here's the issue. The next chapter is supposed to be fluff. However, I'm kinda running low on fluff ideas. Basically, I'm having a huge case of writer's block. PLEASE. If you have an idea for something the characters currently involved can do, please let me know VIA PM <em>ONLY<em>! I will not be telling anyone if their ideas will be used until the next chapter is published, so please don't ask. I'm sorry that this is taking so long and that my story seems slow, but life has been hectic lately and everything I've written so far has turned out to be unsatisfactory and I'm not willing to publish it. Thank you for your patience.  
><strong>


	6. A Taste of Heavy Combat

(P.o.V.: Sonic)

"So, what happens now guys?" I asked as Tails as he landed the Tornado X.

"I thought we were gonna go look for Eggman?" said Knuckles.

"That would be the general idea." said Chris.

"It would help if we knew where he was." I said.

"I would assume he's in Station Square somewhere." Knuckles said, rolling his eyes.

"That would make sense, but then again, this IS Eggman we're talking about. Who knows what kinds of crazy tricks he has up his sleeve?" said Tails.

"So, what are we waiting for?" I asked, "Let's go put a hurting on the Egghead!"

Tails just shook his head, as he climbed out, the others following his lead. "Not a good idea. Not yet at least. I need some time to get the Tornado ready for combat. We haven't flown like that for a long time too. I probably need to clean the guns and check the missiles. Not to mention the armor-"

I yawned, starting to tune Tails out. I never really did care for all this techno babble. "Tails. Just… take care of it. I'm gonna go for a run if we can't go now. I need to stretch."

Tails gave a sigh. "Fine. I'll see you later." I smiled and took off, waving back to the rest of the gang.

-6-6-6-6-6-

(P.o.V.: Knuckles)

I shook my head at Sonic's usual antics, always in a rush. I turned to Chris looking him over as we walked to the mansion. It was all so bizarre still… I mean, Chris? A guardian of Chaos? The kid could barely take a punch the last time I saw him, and if he got hit with a laser, I doubt he'd be getting back up anytime soon. I was snapped from my thoughts when he spoke.

"What's up Knuckles? Why you looking at me like that?" he asked.

"Uh… sorry." I said. "Just… trying to get my head around what's happened."

Chris laughed nervously. "Yeah… it's a lot to get used to. I mean, I can see right through my body! It's really weird."

I blinked. That couldn't be the biggest concern he had. "You don't quite get it do you?"

He looked up at me, looking confused. "Huh? What do you mean?"

I sighed. I was gonna have to explain this to him apparently. "Do you understand the responsibilities you have now? Chaos is supposed to be one of the guardians. You're going to have to protect not only the Master Emerald, but the Chaos Emeralds as well. That means not only will you have to find and gather them, but you can't let anyone else get them. Bad people are out there Chris, and while on Angel Island, it's usually pretty quiet, they do come. Eggman is just one of the many who wish to either harm or control the Master and Chaos emeralds. You're going to have to stay vigilant…"

Chris seemed to pause, thinking things over… "So… we're like partners now?"

I almost tripped. While standing still. "That's all you got from that? Yes. I suppose we are kind of partners. But there's more to it than that. You have to pr-"

"No, no, I get it," Chris interrupted me, "protect the emeralds and the world and all that good stuff… But… Does this mean I'll have to come live with you on Angel Island after this mess is over?"

I shrugged. "Probably wouldn't be a bad idea, though as long as you can hear the Emerald's will, you should be fine…" I shook my head a bit. "Even so, we got off topic. My point is that I just have trouble seeing you able to fend off bad guys from the emeralds. People like Eggman aren't gonna just stop because they've lost once, and they just get stronger every time they come back. You, on the other hand, don't look like you could take on most of the wildlife on Angel Island, not to mention the robots and other intruders!"

Chris seemed to take offense to that, slamming the door shut behind him. "I'm not THAT weak! I can handle myself in a fight! I took out 6 'bots by myself!"

I shrugged. "Not bad I suppose. Though, luck probably had something to do with it."

I jumped in surprise as Chris let out a noise that sounded like a growl. "Fine!" he yelled. "Let's go then! You and me!"

I couldn't help it. I laughed. "Chris. I'd knock you out with one punch, and you know it. But fine. I suppose a spar would be good. Maybe I can help toughen you up. I can't have a weak partner after all." I said with a smirk.

Chris only grumbled to himself as we headed back outside.

-6-6-6-6-6-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

What. Did I just get myself into? I couldn't help it! I was just so mad! Knuckles thinks he knows everything when it comes to fighting, and that I know nothing! I've seen Sonic and Tails and even Knuckles fighting enough that I know how things work! I wanted to prove to him that I could handle myself, though now that we were heading outside to actually do this, I wasn't as sure of myself…

"First one to knock the other out or get them to surrender wins. Ready?" He asked.

I gulped. This was really happening. I was about to fight Knuckles. I must be crazy. I nodded hesitantly, and almost instantly had to duck, as he sent a punch my way. While I got out of the way of the punch, he followed up quickly with a kick to my head, which I had no time to dodge. I was sent reeling from the hit, holding my head. I heard him chuckling, looking up.

"Ready to quit? I'm just getting warmed up!" Knuckles taunted. I charged at him, swinging wildly, trying to land a hit. To my dismay, every punch I threw was either countered by one of his own, or just avoided completely. I kept swinging, desperate to land at least one shot on him. I was determined to at least show him that I wasn't completely incompetent in a fight! I went for one big punch, putting as much power behind it as I could, only to see Knuckles parry the shot, and launch into an uppercut of his own. I was out before I even hit the ground.

-6-6-6-6-6-

"Chris. You suck." That's what I woke to, still laying on the ground where I had been knocked out. It seemed to have only been a few minutes, seeing as Knuckles was still here. "However…" he continued, "You got guts, and determination." He offered me a hand getting up. "I think you'll make a fine fighter someday. There's a world of difference between seeing a fight happen, and actually being involved. Moves that seem obvious to an observer are missed by the fighter, caught up in the heat of the moment." I nodded dumbly, taking his hand.

"Why…? Why are you being so nice?" I asked. "I lost. You didn't even break a sweat! I… I should just give up now… I guess I'm just not cut out for-" I was interrupted by a smack on the face from Knuckles.

"Don't ever say that. You may very well not be cut out for this now. But by the time we're done, I'll make sure you are." Knuckles lectured. "Honestly, some of the most important aspects of doing something like me, well us now I suppose, isn't being able to throw a punch or take a hit." He tapped his head. "A lot of it is up here. You can't be afraid to face down an opponent you know nothing about. You have to have the will to keep on fighting. That's the most important part. Without that, even the strongest would fall. You have plenty of that. Willpower, and determination. Now, we just have to work on the physical part." He finished with a smirk. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to enjoy what he had in store for me…

-6-6-6-6-6-

I was right. It was miserable. He beat the crap out of me, got me up and we'd go again. I was getting better though. Slowly. I managed to land a hit on him a few times now, and he always gave me pointers as we went. Unfortunately, these lessons were usually reenforced with a fist, usually to my head. I was hating every moment of it and then some, but I kept going. I need to get better. I need to be able to actually help Sonic. No, not just Sonic, but the whole world. Knuckles was right, as much as I hate to admit it. This wasn't something I could just step into and be prepared for anything the world threw my way.

"Keep your mind on the fight Chris!" Knuckles yelled, delivering another haymaker to my chin. I fell down again, just barely staying awake.

"Knuckles… I need a break…" I got out weakly, laying there… To my surprise, he nodded.

"Alright. That's another thing." He said sitting down next to me. "Don't ever over-train. You don't want to train yourself to the point where you can't fend off an attacker."

I nodded a bit. "That makes sense…" After a few minutes of just staring up at the clouds I turned my head to Knuckles. "Hey Knuckles…?"

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Thanks." He nodded, leaning back…

We both just lay there for a while, recovering from the workout. Well, I was doing more recovering than him. Knuckles hardly broke a sweat the whole time! And we'd been at it for a few hours! As I relaxed, I closed my eyes, feeling the world around me…

"Hey Chris! Knuckles!" I heard a voice, jumping up from my thoughts. We both turned around to see Tails, waving to us. "The Tornado X is ready to go, now we just need to wait for Sonic to get back!" I nodded, both excited and nervous to do this. I finally get to help take out Eggman! But… then again, Knuckles just showed me how very far I have to go when it comes to combat… I wasn't sure I was ready for this… It must have shown on my face, because I felt Knuckles put his hand on my shoulder, and give a thumbs up.

"You ready for this kid? Your first big fight with Robotnik." He said. Something about the way he smiled, maybe how it seemed… predatory, even though it wasn't directed at me, set me at ease, and I nodded.

"Let's do this."

-6-6-6-6-6-

(P.o.V.: Miles "Tails" Prower)

After letting Chris and Knuckles know I was ready, I went back down to the lab, deciding to continue working on the problem of powering the Tornado X without the Chaos Emerald. Normally, this isn't a big deal, but most of the important combat systems rely on that extra output from the emerald. Originally they were just extras, but now we kind of need them. Who else is gonna take out Eggman's airplanes? The plane still flies just fine without the emerald, but without it I lose almost all of my weapon systems, not to mention the Heads Up Display or the advanced navigational equipment. My first thought was to try and increase the power output of the engine systems, but that's not going to work. Unfortunately, the electrical output of the alternator just can't keep up with anything but the most basic systems on its own. Maybe if I can replicate the way the emerald produces energy I could build a sort of… substitute for them… Though, it won't be anywhere near as powerful as the emerald… I guess I should start by modifying the Tornado X to be able to run without all systems or only the basics. Like an in between phase…

I was interrupted from my designs and planning by a knock on the lab door. "What's up guys? I ask as Chris and Knuckles walk in. My question is quickly answered when Sonic speeds into the lab from the hangar entrance.

"Ready to get this show on the road Tails?" he asks, and we all load into the Tornado X, ready to take a stand against Eggman's tyranny.

-6-6-6-6-6-

"Get ready everyone! Thirty seconds!" I called, and pushed the button to open the canopy to let Sonic, Knuckles, and Chris out on to the wing of the plane, closing it behind them. I'd managed to fly low enough to stay off of Eggman's radar thus far, but the 'bots were bound to notice. Sure enough, moments later the lasers began to fly. I returned fire as best I could, keeping steady for the others on top.

"Three! Two! One! JUMP!" I called, as I flew the plane close to the ground. Normally I would have dropped them from higher up, but this was Chris' first time even outside the cockpit during this kind of flight. High speed and under fire. They jumped, as I pulled up, and swung around to cover them, launching a few missiles to clear out some space. They all seemed to land safely enough, and I started engaging the airborne bots. There weren't too many, but they were annoying. They were designed like small planes, but were really maneuverable. Once one got on me it was really hard to shake them. Not to mention they seemed to have missiles of their own to shoot at me with! Eventually I managed to knock out most of them with missiles and gave a sigh of relief. Turns out I relaxed too soon.

"Tails," came Knuckles' voice over the radio, "it's getting kind of crowded down here. Any chance of you getting your fancy plane of yours in gear and helping us out?"

I sighed. "On it Knuckles. I'll come around for a strafing run. Keep your eyes open and don't get hit. Danger Close guys."

-6-6-6-6-6-

(P.o.V.: Christopher)

Aww crap. I'm in way over my head here. Even more than with Knuckles. At this point it was really all I could do was try not to get myself killed. I didn't know if that was possible or not, but I really didn't want to find out right now. Sonic had run off somewhere, doing his thing, while I stuck with Knuckles, trying to help cover him.

"Look out!" I called, and pushed Knuckles down with me as a missile flew right by us.

"Come on Chris, get up!" Knuckles yelled as I scrambled off of him. "Thanks for the save, but we aren't anywhere near done yet." he growled as he went back to pounding on the 'bots. I turned my attention back to the group I was fighting. I'd managed to knock out around five or six by now, though it was taking a huge toll on me. I didn't have anywhere near the amount of breathing room I had when I defeated that lone patrol. Every time I tried to get into the air for some space, either the aerial badniks or even the ones I was fighting would force me to land again. I heard something explode and covered my head, watching as Tails flew by, peppering the robots with lasers as he passed, taking out a good chunk. I grinned and got an idea.

"Hey Knuckles, can you throw me at that group over there?!"

"What?! Are you crazy?"

"Just do it! We aren't making any progress like this!" I called back. He conceded and grabbed my arms, swinging me around a few times before throwing me at the group I had pointed out. I held out my fist, and used the boosters to stabilize my flight as I smashed into them at full speed, taking out 5 more in one shot. It took me a few moments to crawl out of the wreckage, and when I did, I noticed that I was cut off from Knuckles again, and started bashing my way through the 'bots. I could hear Knuckles doing the same, seeing the occasional 'bot fly off as he smashed it with an uppercut. We eventually made it back to one another, and went back to back, punching out everyone that came close. "Remind me again, why did we think this was a good idea?" I asked.

Knuckles grunted as he punched clean through a robot. "Because we were gonna get in, knock out Eggman and get out. Apparently that's not happening. Focus on the fight!"

I sighed, continuing to smash the robots that came in range…

(P.o.V.: Knuckles)

'Come on, where are you Sonic?' I thought as I continued trashing robots. I was starting to get frustrated, as it felt like for every one I scrapped, two more came to take its place! There's no way we'd be able to keep this up much longer. I growled and called up Tails again. "Any sign of Sonic?"

"I can't see him, but he's there. He may have gotten inside." the fox answered.

"Great. Nice of him to leave us behind like that. Think you could swing around again?"

"Sure thing, just let me shake this 'bot real quick."

I nodded and turned my focus back to the fight. "How you holding up Chris?" I asked. My only answer was a slightly pained grunt at first.

"I… I've been better… How about… You?"

"Holding up. For now at least." I said, smashing what seemed like my thousandth robot today. This one fell in pieces, and I got an idea. I started to pick up some of them and hurl them at the other 'bots. It wasn't as effective as I hoped, but I did manage to break a few of them before running out of parts to chuck. "Here comes Tails!" I called as I braced for the incoming laser barrage…

That's when things started to go bad.

Chris stood up just after Tails passed, and was promptly nailed by a laser. I ran over to him and checked him out. He'd live, but he was done for this fight.

"Guys. Chris is down." I called on the radio. Now things got tricky for me. I had to defend Chris from being captured, and at the same time keep from getting myself killed. I ran about him, batting away a few missiles and just barely avoiding laser fire. I knew the lasers couldn't kill him, but I don't think we'd be able to find all the pieces to let him recover if Chris got hit by a missile. I held them off for as long as I could, when I heard an explosion in the sky, followed by Tails shouting over the radio.

"I'm hit!" he yelled. Sure enough, I looked up to see smoke rolling off the Tornado X. "I can keep it together for now but…"

The distraction cost me, the last thing I felt was a large metal fist, charged with electricity, hitting me in the back. Hard.

-6-6-6-6-6-

(P.o.V.: Sonic)

"SONIC!" came Tails' voice over the radio. "We need to get out! NOW! Knuckles and Chris are both down, and I'm running on one engine!"

"Aww. I was having fun!" I joked. I may have been all smiles on the outside, but I know a bad situation when I'm in one. "I'm on my way." I focused, spin-dashing my way through rows of Egghead's badniks as I made my way back outside. I had made it inside the base, but the inside was just as frantic, if not more, than the outside. 'Bots filled the halls, and there were mounted laser guns everywhere! I was honestly a bit peeved that I had made it so close, just to have to turn around, but Chris and the others come first. I had to save them. Speeding outside, I called back to Tails. "Where are they? I'll grab them and then I can jump up to the plane if you make a low pass."

"They should be on the south side, near where you all landed. Hurry Sonic, I don't know how much longer I can stay airborne!"

"On it little man! Think you can get me a ring?"

"Sure thing… Just… There! Ring away Sonic!" Sure enough, flying towards me was one of the special rockets Tails had designed to get me rings. I reached up and grabbed the ring as the rocket broke apart, and promptly absorbed the power, using it to spin-dash through the massive number of robots like they were nothing more than paper. I found the two, laying out cold and cleared the robots from around them.

"Ready for you Tails!" I called as I picked the two of them up.

"Here I come, get ready." He said. I spent a few moments dodging the laser fire, before leaping up and landing on the top of the Tornado X. Tails promptly opened the cockpit and I strapped Knuckles and Chris in as best I could, then climbed in myself and closed the lid. Even I could tell, we were in a bad way. I didn't know what any of them meant, but there were warning lights flashing all over the place…

(P.o.V.: Miles "Tails" Prower)

Not good. Not good at all. We were down to one engine, which by the way, was in fact on fire, and I had run completely out of missiles. The wings were damaged, and the boosters were toast. If I didn't get us out soon we weren't gonna make it. As soon as Sonic was in, I started flying away to get clear of the mess. After a few moments I relaxed.

"We should be good now guys…" I said, looking back to check on them.

"Great job Tails." Sonic said, giving a thumbs up. Suddenly a new alarm began to blare. "Uh, what's that mean?"

I looked back to the dash, only to see the worst possible alert. "Missile lock!" I clenched my teeth, and readied the flares and chaffs to throw off the missile. The alarm rose in pitch, they'd fired. "Wait for it…" I carefully watched on the radar, wanting to wait to the last possible moment so they wouldn't be able to follow up with another missile. "Now!" I pulled the lever to release the chaffs… and nothing came out. "No! Out of countermeasures! Brace for impact!" There was nothing I could do to stop the missile from hitting, in our condition, it would be a miracle for us to survive the crash…

-6-6-6-6-6-

(END NOTES)

It's been a while, hasn't it? I really don't have much of a good excuse for why it took me so long to update. Just couldn't get myself to write. Now I'm back though, and I hope to publish at least one chapter each month. Thanks for all your support while I write this. Each and every review means a lot to me, and will help encourage me to write more. Don't worry though, I won't hold the story hostage for reviews, like some authors do. Can't wait to figure out where I'm going to go next with this. Any ideas are welcome, but don't expect me to tell you until I use them or don't. And just… try to keep them reasonable.


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